In Cleveland, hope dies last

Shurmur taking the social out of social media

Training camp is getting to Cleveland Browns coach Pat Shurmur.

From integrating rookie quarterback Brandon Weeden into the offense, to dealing with injuries to seemingly half the defense, the possible suspension of cornerback Joe Haden, and chasing Eric “10-win” Mangini on the franchise’s career wins list, the stress and pressure seems to be getting to the second-year coach.

How else to explain Shurmur’s reaction earlier this week to Twitter?

After Mohamed Massaquoi left Friday’s preseason game against Detroit with what was reported as a concussion, the fourth-year wide receiver Tweeted that he was fine, no concussion.

When questioned about it by the media, Shurmur took off on Twitter.

“You know how I feel about tweets and twitters number one,” Shurmur said. “I told you what happened and that’s what happened so I don’t know. I only hear what gets tweeted, but he had a concussion and we’re treating it as so.

“I don’t like (tweets), that’s my policy. I encourage (the players) not to (tweet) and I think it’s important that they don’t. I don’t think you can totally harness social media. I’ve come to that realization, but what I can do is encourage and inspire them to be very professional and not talk about Browns business. That’s just my feeling on it. That’s a big thing to harness, social media.

“I’m not going to sit here and pick a fight with Twitter. I don’t want to do that because I want to deal with our guys as professionals. I want to deal with them as men and that’s part of society at this point, social media. I think it’s important that I encourage them and inspire them not to do it and if you ask me a question about what happened in the game and I tell you the process then that’s how it happened.”

The thing is, all Shurmur had to do was say the Browns were correctly following league policy in dealing with head injuries and that should have been the end of it. It is irrelevant if the player doesn’t think he has a head injury, that’s why the league changed the rules. They don’t want players making the decision to return to the game if they are injured – especially a player like Massaquoi, who has suffered at least two concussions in the past two seasons.

As for Massaquoi, he seems to understand what happened.

“Everything that was done was strictly precautionary because of the type of the hit, the way that the hit looked,” he told The Plain Dealer. “So I’m excited just to play right now, and now we’re gonna keep moving forward. They have a spotter up top now who watched for things like that. So, I’m glad that we have a great medical staff that watches for things like that, and they take precautionary action to make sure nothing comes out of it.”

Massaquoi also volunteered to give Shurmur a lesson in the finer arts of Twitter.

“Pat’s a little older, so he doesn’t really understand it,” Massquoi told The Beacon Journal. “But we’re gonna keep certain things in house as far as Twitter goes. We’re not gonna give any game plans or anything like that or give too many updates, which may hinder something that we’re trying to do. But Twitter’s fun. Hopefully I can get Pat to get one.”

All kidding aside, Massaquoi needs to focus more on his game as the preseason continues. For all the talk about how the Browns are going to limit Josh Cribbs role as a wide receiver this season, the converted quarterback still caught 41 passes for 518 yards and four touchdowns last season. Massaquoi has never had more than 36 catches or more than three touchdown catches in his career.

If MoMass can’t step up his game in the coming weeks, he may have more time than he wants to spend on Twitter.